Marc Zoutendijk from the DWG here.
Recently the DWG got involved in a conflict related to the use of “macrons” in the names of streets in New Zealand.
It started with this user (sculpture705) :
https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/sculpture705/history
and then another user (michael60634) did this:
That last user contacted the DWG and now I’m here to try to solve this problem.
There was a lengthy discussion on talk-nz back in 2021:
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-nz/2021/000318.html
that had the use of macrons (in the correct writing of place names) as its subject.
After reading all the postings I think that the conclusion that macrons should be used in place names is fairly correct and is widely supported in the NZ community.
The question that arises now is if this same point of view is also true in relation to the names of streets.
The DWG cannot (and shall not) solve that problem as it is something that the New Zealand mapping community itself should solve.
But the DWG can try to help, and that is why I’m posting here.
The recent posting on this list:
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-nz/2024/000455.html
is a good starting point and the DWG created a ticket for this case with Ticket#2024032910000467 as its number. (But you don’t have to refer to that ticket when posting here)
The OSM community is using various methods of “talking” with each other, this list is one such method, but recently a well developed forum also came into use which has much more capabillities than this list.
That forum can be found here:
https://community.openstreetmap.org/tags/c/communities/oceania/73/new_zealand
I shall post this message both on this list as well as on the forum.
The one basic question to be answered is this:
Should mappers use macrons (or other diacritical signs) in the name=* tag, if the use of those macrons (or signs) in everyday live is the desired practice, even if the use of macrons (or signs) on the street name signs is (not yet?) widely in use.
A last word: as I’m not from New Zealand and do not speak the Māori
language myself, I might overlook a number of things, simply because I don’t know their existence. If that is the case, please bring them in here.
Best regards,
Marc Zoutendijk
OpenStreetMap Foundation
Data Working Group